Clark wouldn't sit still. Lana, having 'generously' being given her body back by Lyla, was having little success stopping him pacing around his barn. He was still hurting after Lenaria's attack, but while he could not heal himself instantly like Lenaria, the yellow sun seemed to be helping him recover quickly. Still, he needed some rest. She reached out to take his arm, but he shrugged her off absently.
"This won't stand," he said finally, stopping abruptly.
"Clark, I know you – we – have to do something, but what?" asked Lana. "We have no way of finding Brainiac or Lenaria."
"Yo, Clark man, he's coming round!"
That was Pete, who was upstairs with Chloe and John. John was in bad shape, but at least he HAD a shape again. Lana had seen him melt into a puddle during his confrontation with Lenaria. However, once Clark had put out the flames, he had been able to revert back to his normal shape. His normal shape being that of a green-skinned alien. A few weeks ago she would have been shocked, but Kandor had helped open her mind quite a bit.
"John, are you all right?" asked Clark, as Chloe prevented John from sitting up.
"Yes, thank you. I'll be fine now, thanks to you," he said, reverting back to his human form. "Did Lenaria escape?"
"Yeah. I took a good look around the area, but all I found was a trail of blood that cut off in the woods. I'm guessing she healed herself and got out of there. Can you track her down again?"
John concentrated for a moment before shaking his head.
"Now that she knows we're on to her it looks like she's shielding her mind. I could find her if she uses her telepathic abilities on a large enough level, but until then…"
"Well, we're not just going to sit around and wait for that to happen," said Clark firmly. "I'm going to go talk to Jor-El, see if he has any way of helping us find her or Brainiac's ship."
"Jor-El's already set a plan for the latter in motion," said John. "He reprogrammed one of the Brainiac constructs to serve both him and yourself. Jor-El gave me a device you can use to summon him."
John handed him a small cube and showed Clark how to operate it. Chloe cleared her throat.
"Uh, I know we all have to look at the bigger picture here, but since no-one else is asking… what exactly are you?"
Lana couldn't help but notice that Chloe seemed a lot more comfortable around John that John did around Chloe.
"I'm from Mars," said John. "I worked with Jor-El a long time ago, and he sent me to Earth to watch over his son. However, I was only to intervene if absolutely necessary. When Lenaria locked Clark in a mind trap in The Fortress, Jor-El knew I was the only one capable of freeing him, and sent a signal to me."
"John from Mars. Riiiight," said Chloe, smiling. "So what are you really called? What do you want us to call you?"
"I go by the name John Jones on this planet, but I am elsewhere known as J'onn J'onzz or The Martian Manhunter. You may call me whatever you wish."
"And you can call me Ace," said Pete.
"Anyway," said Clark, ignoring him. "Let's see what Brainiac has to say."
Activating the device, they had to wait only moments before Brainiac appeared in the barn, still in his Milton Fine form.
"How may I serve you, Kal-El?"
Although Brainiac sounded subservient, there was a small smile appearing at the corner of his mouth that looked mocking. Lana didn't like it one bit.
"J'onn tells me you know how to find the ship."
"I am no longer controlled by it, but I can still sense it. Have no fear, Kal-El, I have already anticipated your instructions and taken action. I'm using Lex's 33.1 to acquire the ship. Most of them are simply cannon-fodder of course, just there to provide a distraction while I take control of the ship."
"Cannon-fodder," said Clark coldly.
"I thought you'd be pleased, Kal-El. I'm saving you the trouble of having to deal with Lex Luthor's army yourself."
"Let me make this very clear to you, and consider this my first order. You don't ever ASSUME anything about what I want. You do WHAT I tell you WHEN I tell you to do it."
Brainiac's expression did not change.
"As you say."
"Can you get us another suit of armour to remove Lenaria's powers?"
"Only one suit remains, and Lex Luthor has taken to wearing it at all times. But I can get it for you, yes."
"Then do it," said Clark, before quickly adding: "Without hurting him in any way."
"And WHEN exactly would my master like me to do this?"
"Once we're done here," said Clark. Still definitely mocking, thought Lana. "I have three more questions. Can you restore the cities once we have all of them? Put them exactly back where they were?"
"The ship is capable of that, yes. Gotham will require a great deal of precision: the ship was running low on power then, and the outskirts of the city were left behind."
"Alright. Now, can you remove individuals from the cities, like you did for the armour?"
"Yes," said Brainiac. Clark was just about to speak again when Brainiac added: "Not alive though."
"Right. Now the last question: who was that woman who fought alongside me in The Fortess, and what happened to her?"
"Her name is Raya. She's a Kryptonian like yourself, sent to The Phantom Zone by Jor-El so that she would survive the destruction of Krypton. Jor-el sent her to Kandor on a mission, but Kelex reported back saying she had been captured and imprisoned there by Kimda."
"Why would he do that?"
"I'm afraid I don't have enough information to give an informed answer."
Lana almost smiled. She guessed Brainiac would rather die than simply say he didn't know. Clark turned away from Brainiac, surprising Lana with a kiss.
"Once this is all over, we'll sit down and plan our wedding," said Clark. "I'm going to make all of this right, I promise. Brainiac, you have your orders. Stop the Level 33.1 attack. Get the armour from Lex. Then come to me and we'll take the ship together. Go now!"
Brainiac, still with that mocking smile, sped from the barn.
"J'onn, you seem to be about as strong as I am. Stronger, in a lot of ways. I need you to go to The Fortress and get Jor-El to send you into Metropolis. Find the Luthorcorp building. My mother and Lionel Luthor should have been inside when the city was taken. Find them and also track down Lana's aunt Nell and her husband Dean. Get them all out of the city and back here."
"Kal-El, I hear what you're saying, but I'm needed here. You need all the help you can get if you're going to get that ship. And even with that armour, Lenaria is tricky. I know. I hunted her down on Krypton once we realised she was a criminal. She killed a lot of people trying to escape."
"Do I remind you of Jor-El?"
"Physically you look alike…" said J'onn.
"Not what I mean. The Jor-El in The Fortress and I have never gotten along. But you know something? The Jor-El I hear about on Kandor truly sounds like a great person, someone I'd aspire to be like. Lana, you remember the necklace Lenaria made for you?"
Lana nodded. Thanks to that necklace, she knew Clark's secret. Lenaria had stored Clark's memories inside of it, and Clark had later stored the memories of others.
"Those memories took on a life of their own to the extent that I could hear them and interact with them. But they were still just memories. Just like Jor-El is. Jor-El orders me to kill, but I don't think he was someone who would kill in cold blood himself. But I think he would certainly have seen it as the best option. In the cabin, I could have killed Lenaria with the dagger before she knew what was happening. I knew it was the best option, but I couldn't go through with it. I think Jor-El might have been the same. Except the Jor-El in the Fortress doesn't have a heart."
Lyla spoke up in Lana's mind, causing her to jump. She had forgotten the girl was there.
"Lyla says one of the first things an Empireth is taught is not to confuse simple memories with a soul," she said.
"Exactly," said Clark. "So go, J'onn, please. Once they're back I want you to go to Kandor and help Raya. Whatever her mission was, it can wait for now."
"Alright, Kal-El," said J'onn, after weighing the situation carefully. "But once I get back, know that you can count on my help."
J'onn surprised all of them by not only speeding from the barn, but flying from it. He seemed to have almost as many of Clark's abilities as Lenaria did.
"Lyla says she wants to help, Clark. She also says we shouldn't hurt Lenaria."
"I know you want to be with someone from your own race," said Clark, seeming to be looking beyond Lana's eyes now. "But you and Lenaria couldn't be more different. Do you know she almost killed you? She held the city of Kandor in her hands and she tried to destroy it. She thought nothing of ending your life and everyone else's. Lenaria is not what you're looking for. Trust me. Go back to your family. I know I was angry before, but I know you haven't meant any harm. You're secret is safe with us."
Lana felt Lyla taking control then, and this time she didn't try to fight it. At least not until Lyla locked her lips around Clark's. That little…! What did she think she was doing!?
Clark broke the kiss off quickly.
"Lyla?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Goodbye, Clark," she said, and then Lana felt the girl fade from her mind completely.
"She's gone," whispered Lana.
"What about us?" asked Pete. "I don't think I'll be beating Brainiac in a fight anytime soon, but I want to help, if I can."
"You guys have the most important job," said Clark, wrapping an arm around Lana.
"What is it?" asked Chloe, looking ready for action.
"You'll be doing my farm chores while I'm away. I've gotten way behind, what with my trip to Kandor and everything."
Lana and Clark kept straight faces for as long as they could before bursting out laughing at the pair's reaction.
"Looks like my boy's got a sense of humour since I've been away," said Pete, looking at Chloe meaningfully. "I don't think it's one of your superpowers, big guy."
"Seriously though, I'm glad you're alright, 'Ace', even if it was Lenaria that got you better. It's strange. Lenaria helped more people in an hour than I've helped my whole life."
Lana was about to speak, but Chloe got there first.
"Even if her intentions weren't exactly noble? Come on, Clark, it doesn't exactly balance the scales for her, does it? Do you really think the world's going to be better off with little miss 'oops I dropped Kandor' in charge?"
"Chloe's right," said Lana, who suddenly felt very irrelevant to the situation. The truth was, she hadn't spent as much time with Clark and Chloe together since they left Smallville High, and she'd forgotten that the pair had a certain… chemistry together.
"Thanks," said Clark. "Now we need to get the three of you somewhere safe, somewhere Lenaria doesn't know about. I'm not going to let her do anything to any of you ever again."
Pulling the dagger out, Clark wiped the tiny traces of Lenaria's blood that were still on it.
"One way or another, she's going to be stopped for good. And if I have to kill her, then I will."
Clark couldn't take his eyes from the weapon, and Lana couldn't take her eyes off of Clark. She wondered then if it was like he'd said to them before, where he knew it made sense but wouldn't go through with it. She wondered that if this time, he might actually kill her.
As they waited for Brainiac to return, they took to talking about old times, about how much had changed since back then. Even if Lenaria and Brainiac were stopped, the world had changed – this was news that was all over the world, not something confined only to The Torch. The world now knew that people like Clark were out there. Pete managed a few jokes to ease the tension; Chloe affectionately told him to quit it, while Clark and Lana just held each other.
It was a moment Lana would later remember as the last time the four of them were ever together.